THE DOMESDAY SURVEY of the manor of Stotfold (in which Ralf had succeeded Anschil), and Hugh claimed these as not being part of her dower. Ralf had left a daughter as well as a widow, and in the adjoining county of Herts we find her entered as a tenant-in-chief of 4 hides at Hunsdon (' Hodes- done'), though these are described as 'of the fee of Hugh de Beau- champ' (fo. 142b). As restless there as in this county Ralf had trans- ferred one of these hides from Stanstead Abbots to Hunsdon. But the matter is further complicated by the devolution of the estates of a great Bedfordshire thegn, Wulfmar of Eaton Socon, the ' Etone ' of Domesday. 1 His estates ran south through Wyboston, Chawston, Tempsford, Barford, Blunham and Sandy, to Sutton and Hat- ley Cockayne, extending over the Cambridgeshire border into Gamlingay and Hatley. With the exception of his land at Barford, the whole of his estates appear to have passed either to Eudo ' Dapifer ' or to Ralf Tallebosc's widow, who seems to have held her share, the smaller one, as part of her marriage portion. As with the three local baronies of which I have spoken above, that of which Eaton Socon was the head deserves special notice, because it has a part as the barony of ' Etone ' in the feudal history of the county. Escheating to the Crown in 1 120 on the death of Eudo ' dapifer,' it was granted to one of the house of Beau- champ, but it must be carefully distinguished from the barony of ' Beau- champ of Bedford.' 3 There would seem to be no actual proof of a connection between these two lines of the name of Beauchamp, however probable it may seem ; nor is it known whether either line was connected with the Worcestershire house. As bearing, however, on the origin of the Beau- champs ' of Bedford,' it is interesting to note the unusual circumstance that three, if not four, of their under-tenants derived their names from places within what is now a single canton, that of Tilly-sur-Seulles in the Calvados. 3 Wimund de ' Taissel,' William de ' Locels,' and Serlo de ' Ros ' were clearly named from Tessel (-Bretteville), Loucelles and Rots within this canton. Osbert de ' Broilg,' therefore, may possibly be named from Brouay, which was also within it, for the list of the knights of the barony, in 11 66, is headed by Robert de ' Broi ' (or 'Bray'). 4 We have now dealt with the Domesday fiefs which became local baronies, all of them appearing as such in the returns of 11 66 except that of Eaton (Socon), which was not included in those returns. 8 Of the other Bedfordshire tenants-in-chief the first in order is the Count of Boulogne, whose lands, in which he had succeeded Alwold, ' a 1 See the section on ' Earthworks ' for its noteworthy early castle. 2 There is confusion between them in Dugdale's Baronage (i. 224). See Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 171- 3 Beauchamp itself occurs as a place-name in Moyaux and in Vouilly, both of them in the Calvados.
- Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 319. The Domesday name, however, is more suggestive of Breuil,
a name borne by several places in the Calvados. 6 See ibid. p. 318 for a later entry of it. I 201 26
